Recently in Freedom of speech Category

Reproduced below is my latest blog for Conservative Home.

I have posted before about the very British stance that the Obama administration is currently taking to its counter-terrorism policy. More evidence of this was provided last week, when Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the House Judiciary Committee.

Reproduced below is my latest blog for Standpoint

Revolution Muslim, a US-based extremist organisation, has issued death threats against Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the makers of animated sitcom 'South Park', after their latest episode which satirised the ongoing hysteria about depicting Mohammed.  In what is yet another example of the ongoing influence Anwar al-Awlaki has on Western jihadism, the religious justification used by the group for killing Stone and Parker was taken from a 2008 Awlaki lecture 'The Dust Will Never Settle Down'.

Reproduced below is my latest blog for Standpoint:

The Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) has been the subject of much scrutiny since Andrew Gilligan's investigation into them revealed that the group was using effective entryist tactics to infiltrate and influence local politics in East London. Local MP Jim Fitzpatrick even went so far as to say that the IFE was "trying to get individuals selected and elected" so that they could eventually achieve their goal of establishing an "Islamic social and political order" in Britain.  The IFE and its parent organisation the East London Mosque (ELM), have since been protesting against accusations of extremism.  Despite this, senior IFE member, Azad Ali, wrote a blog yesterday in which he suggested an ideological affinity between his group and Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT).

Reproduced below is my latest blog for Standpoint magazine:

Yesterday, Home Secretary Alan Johnson banned Islam4UK in what seemed a knee-jerk reaction to their planned march in Wootten Bassett.  Although the ban has come late and was quite clearly done with the upcoming election in mind, it is still the right move.

CSC Director Douglas Murray is co-signatory to a letter sent today to Index on Censorship. The organisation refused to publish one of the Danish cartoons of Mohammed in their own magazine in an article discussing the subject. The full text is reproduced below.

This is an article which first appeared on my Standpoint Focus on Islamism blog

Readers may remember that back in April, counter terrorism officers arrested 12 students in the North West of England as part of Operation Pathway.  The government has now released an update about the arrests and subsequent detentions, which have caused much consternation among some British Muslims, who (in some cases justifiably) saw the arrests as another example of the increased suspicion and victimisation of Muslims in the UK.

In my last blog, I wrote about the decision to ban an al-Qaeda supporter from a London local council.  The government's Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU) have now released a statement about this move.

This is a guest post by CSC Research Intern Thomas Bumstead

Polls like prophecies tend to be self-fulfilling. They also share a dangerous sense of certainty about the claims that they make- of all people priests and pollsters are perhaps the only ones who believe their analysis to be infallible. Unlike other mediums there is no mechanism for the sceptic to challenge the diktats which they bring forth; he or she is forced to merely regard them somewhat suspiciously and see how things turn out. This impoverishing effect upon the discussion can be seen acutely in an Observer article by Jason Burke and Ian Traynor entitled 'Fears of an Islamic revolt in Europe begin to fade' which uses as its springboard the recent Gallup Coexist Index 2009- a poll which aims to explore 'attitudes and perceptions among Muslims and the general public ... about issues of coexistence, integration, values, identity, and radicalization' (p. 10) with a special section on France, Germany and the UK.

This article by CSC Director Douglas Murray is reproduced from the Guardian's Comment is Free.

The oxygen of free societies is freedom of speech. Everything short of incitement has to be tolerated, even when it is wrong. You can't get much more egregiously wrong and wicked than the views expressed by al-Muhajiroun. But they are currently operating in what I hope will be a very brief legal air-pocket. As with the BNP, while they are legal and are being given a platform by independent organisations, they cannot go unchallenged.

East London Islamic Societies are at it again. University of East London Islamic Society (UEL ISoc) is hosting its annual dinner event today on UEL premises hosting 'Sheikh' Abu Usama Adh Dhahabee.